Different grades for hi tensile fencing?

[KrisK]

So, I'm finally getting close to fencing the pasture for some sheep. Yippee!! A while back, someone in Ontario told me they use "Fence Hi-Tensile 1047-6. Cost - somewhere around $235.00 CND for 330 ft. Last week, I went to our local hardware store - Home Hardware (since it's farm country, they do stock farm materials). I asked for Hi Tensile 1047-6. He quoted me $149.00 for 20 rod which I understand is 330 ft. Given the different price, can I assume that one is a higher quality than the other?

Here's the information I got last week -

Tensile hinge lock fencing with Class 3 zinc coated wire with the equivalent strength as conventional 11 guage fencing. Horizonal wires 10 - fence height 47" Stay wire spacing 6", Edge wire guage 12 1/2", Wire guage line 14 1/2", 12 1/2 ga. top and bottom

 

Can someone please explain this to me in layman's terms??? Will this fencing stand up over time? I would rather spend more now for a longer lasting fence than to have to replace a few years from now.

 

Thanks!

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

We are renting, so we are fencing with a very light gauge fence only 30-some inches tall. It's $130US for 330'. This works fine for us as we are not going to be here any more than a couple more years anyway (sorry Mr. Landlord ).

 

Fencing is the best money you'll spend on sheep, but make sure you are putting the money in the right place. We didn't go for HT, just simple woven wire, as we were doing it ourselves and the fields we were doing were quite small. HT starts getting to be a better option if you are doing longer stretches - hundreds of feet - where basic WW has to be divided up for fear of warping under tension.

 

If we were purchasing this place, we'd simply go with a heavier gauge woven wire. Patrick put in top notch corners and braces, so anyone who comes after us can put in literally any type of fencing they want, if our fencing is inadequate.

[NRhodes]

Tensile hinge lock fencing with Class 3 zinc coated wire with the equivalent strength as conventional 11 guage fencing. Horizonal wires 10 - fence height 47" Stay wire spacing 6", Edge wire guage 12 1/2", Wire guage line 14 1/2", 12 1/2 ga. top and bottom

 

This is a description of woven wire which is not what we call high tensile down here. When we talk about high tensile we're talking about a fence made of individual strands of wire. This is high tensile:

 

 

It comes in rolls like so:

 

This is woven wire:

 

Wire gauge is: lower the number the thicker the wire, higher number means thinner. But you also want to look at tensile strength or how many pounds of pull a wire can withstand. Take a look here. See the wires list gauge and tensile strength.

 

Most of the fences here are four strand high tensile, elctrified. With high tensile you don't need as many posts, the fence is easy to tighten if it gets loose (don't nail the wire tight against the post, let it move). See the tensioners in the first picture? Put them in the middle of a run of fence so when you pull the wire tight you pull equally on both ends of the fence. High tensile wire is very hard to bend, so you don't do much twisting the wire back on itself at end posts, you'll need a tool called a crimper and crimps, which are little metal sleeves that slide over the wire to attach two wires together or to end a run. If you're using wooden posts you wouldn't even need to use insulators, the wood won't ground the fence out (unless it's real rainy).

[NorthfieldNick]

They actually do make a "High Tensile" woven wire in the US. Its like a regular high tensile strand fence with the uprights buitl it. They're wrapped in such a way that the horizontals can stretch and slide a bit, but not so loose that a crafty goat could shove all the strands to one end and get loose. It has worked wonders for my friend who pastures her hogs. We watched two sows get into it once- nearly 2000Lbs of hog slammed into that fence, and it bounced right back!

[KrisK]

The high tensile I'm looking at is the woven wire type. Thanks for the information on guage...that's the part I was really struggling with The plan is (so far anyway) put up the woven fence using my cedar posts then string an electric wire along the outside perimeter for additional predator protection. From what I've read, and been told, a good fencing job should do a great deal to keep the predators out

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Yes, that's what I thought she was talking about - HT woven like this: http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php...1&cat_id=50

 

 

I had a neighbor with alpacas - they have woven HT in all their pastures - I have major fence envy every time I go by. They are selling their place, by the way, if anyone aspires to live on a small farm, historic restored farmhouse, four acres already fenced: Listing here there's about twenty acres adjoining that they rent, too - not fenced.

 

Anyway, HT is gorgeous, lasts forever, isn't as vulnerable to trees falling on it as the lighter gauge wire, and if you've got someone who knows what they are doing to put it up for you (or you know and have the equipment), it goes up lickety split. You can pull around angles and corners, unlike the other kind.

 

The down side is expense, and the learning curve required to install it correctly if you don't have help.

 

I love individual strand HT, but summers here are so dry that there's not enough grounding rods in the world, or chargers strong enough, to make the sheep respect it unless there's something of a physical barrier to it as well. Nine wires works well - the best setup I've ever seen was pos/neg alternating wires, on ten strands - but we don't have the know-how to set that up (the guy who did that, to keep goats in, is an electrician ). My neighbor uses all HT on the fences he's built since taking over the family farm, but he says even the calves break fence on four or even five wires - and cattle are much more sensitive to hotwire than sheep.

[Bill Fosher]

The numbering system is a fairly straightforward code. The first number in your fence is 1047. You might also see it written as 10-47. That means a fence with 10 horizontal wires that's a total of 47 inches tall. The second number -- 6 in your case -- is the spacing between the vertical wires. So the fence that you're considering is 47 inches tall with 10 horizontals and a vertical every six inches.

 

The wire gauge as others have indicated is heavier as the number decreases. Given the amount of effort required to install HT woven wire, I wouldn't want to use a whole lot of 14 G wire, except perhaps in places where I was expecting to have to remove or replace the fence every so often, such as water gaps or where the fence runs through woodlands and might be subject to a lot of tree damage. Overall, the 12.5 G will be much heavier and cumbersome to work with, but you will leave it to your grandchildren. The same might not be true of 14 G woven.

[KrisK]

Thanks Bill! That information helps a great deal. I am now fairly sure that the cost difference has to do with the guage of the wire. The area I'm fencing is wide open, no trees so it should not be too difficult to work with the heavier guage.